The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1887-02-02
Ter classes of the old coantry. In
act, except q few imbecile rulers.

known IN the history OF that coun-
try, induced no doubt by consan-
guinity of marriages, we find but
little nervous degeneration in that
class Of people. While speaking of
such marriages, lei. me that
while the asylums do not contain
a greater ratio of the offspring of
such marriages, that there is a
greater ratio of imbeciles, idiots
and otherwise nervously diseased.
This we learn from reports of insti-
buttons for that particular class of
patients.
Bnt the American people is a pc
cnliar people, mixture of several
nationalities.
We find our progenitors in the
early settlement of America, to be
principally of the daring and rest.
less portion of the mother countries,
wild adventurers, dissatisfied with
the routine of sober. quiet life,
trusting to chance and change.
l win not say that any of them
were transported for sheep stealing.
Though it has been the practice in
England to transport her criminals
to her colonies. The Emigration
which has been for the past three
hundred years pouring into this
country is largely of that element,
known as hot headed adventures
with deep hidden admiration for
wealth and nobility, which they
pretend TO despise. Need We be
surprised that their offspring are
impatient of restraint, ambitious
for distinction, and greedy for
wealth, or that their ideas of hap.
piness is in being more wealthy and
.honored than their neighbors.
But wealth is surplus labor; are
you aware that with all the labor
saving improvements that actual
wealth accnmdlates but three per
cent. per annnni?
Now as the population of this
country increases at ABOUT the same
rate, there can be but little increa-
sed wealth to the individual. Yet
some who have the proper qualif.
cations, as miserly zeal and spec
nlatiye phrenzy, succeed in getting
very much more than the distribu.
tive share of the surplus labor
which together with their mental
characteristics, becomes the heri-
tage of their descendants.
Wealth thus accumulated, is
generally at the price of a broken
system, physically and mentally
and this is but faint picture ol
the wrecks To be found in the un-
successful, in that class of our Eel
low citizens, the sequences Of
which will become obvious as ]
proceed.
For instance, 1T has been ebserv
ed, that from one to two decades
following war, pestilence and 9th,
er calamities, including those Just
mentioned, that the ratio of insan
ity and minor nervous troubles are
increased, and it is very significant
that as rule il is not the
participants in war nor the
victims of disease and mis-
fortune who are the immediate
sufferers. Seven tenths thereof be
ing their progeny. That is o
those afflicted from those specific
causes, in that particular class,
AS we witness the disease in. the
above, it gives us a pretty fair in.
sight into the geneology of its vic
Tins. Although a study of its var.
ious phases would require no un.
pretentious volume.
Who That looks upon the "dude'
of to day has any difficulty in trac
ing his pedigree through opulent
but highly nervous forefathers.-
Or fails to deline cate the .dwarfed
intellectually and irritable nerv.
Gus temper of those who call him
father. a4
All DEATH why are you not more
discriminating The homage paid
to the mighty dollar. The status
it gives the holder, regardless of in,
tellect, morals, man or womanhood
causes millions of marriageble per.
sons to contract unhappy alliances
from which thousands of their off
spring are victims of nervosis, who
entail worse form, upon their de
scendants.
But in addition to the anxieties
caused by misdirected energies, un-
congenial marriage perplexities.
from the uncertainty of human
events, loss of property and char,
acter. there are those who volun.
tarily neglect their physical and
moral health, by irregular